Gaia Desert

John Sauer, Communications Director of  of  Water Advocate s  has this blog from  the H uffington Post Why US Philanthropists Should Care About Sanitation and Water From Water Wired : This week was the the first High Level Meeting of Sanitation and Water for All, a global partnership aimed at achieving universal and sustainable access to sanitation and drinking-water for all.  The activities this week included the release of the  2010 GLAAS report  – the UN’s annual assessment of the sanitation and drinking water sector.  Water, Sanitation Funding Decline as Share Of Overall Development Aid, WHO Report Finds   Opinion: Toilets are not glamorous but they are necessary Sanitation for all - but not for another 300 years

Peter Gleik was interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air . He discussed his new book bottled and sold, the story behind our obsession with bottled water .  Water wired has a review of the book here . 

The LLU School of Public Health now has the Water Treatment and Environmental Research (WaTER) laboratory. The WaTER laboratory has the capacity to investigate research questions of surface water quality, hygiene, sanitation, and water disinfection.  The laboratory is located on the first floor in the SW corner of Evans Hall on the Loma Linda University campus.  While this laboratory is under construction, the WaTER lab has relocated to the  Shryock  Hall.  

In the last two years, many counties, states, and municipalities have considered a ban on plastic grocery bags. Is this the best course of action? The issue is becoming complex. Read this blog's report on how the battle is taking form.

Averill Strasser from the NGO WaterCharity  sponsored a tandem hang gliding flight for me with Rob from High Adventure .  I added on the training hill option and had a great weekend!  Here is a video of one of my training hill runs.

Gayle Leonard on her blog  Thirsty in Suburbia  posted  this link  about upgrading your water wasting toilets. This will work for many americans who waste thousands of gallons of water each year with inefficient water wasting toilets. http://blog.gayleleonard.com/2009/07/under-the-hood-of-my-ugly-80s-toilet/ Keep in mind that if you make heavier deposits to your toilet bank, you may want to do some independent research on the subject!  Most Americans have bowel movements of less than 200grams and their 1980's toilets handle Gayle's modification without any problem. If you want to save the water and worry about flushing efficiency, there are several other options: The ideal toilet would be one where you could have a separate flush for urine and a flush for the big BM. Home Depot and others sell them. An even more aggressive approach are the urine separation toilets using disinfected urine for fertilizer. 

Remember your text message donations? It is getting spent, but slowly. Haiti Video Fred Sajous, a Haitian earthquake survivor armed with a video camera and a cause, is a man on a mission: to figure out how the American Red Cross spent the $430 million it raised for the disaster. Read more:  http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/27/1601420/spotlight-falls-on-red-cross-spending.html?story_link=email_msg#ixzz0mbJuMkrZ